Refrigerant vapor compression systems are well known in the art. Air conditioners and heat pumps employing refrigerant vapor compression cycles are commonly used for cooling or cooling/heating air supplied to a climate controlled comfort zone within a residence, office building, hospital, school, restaurant or other facility. Refrigerant vapor compression systems are also commonly used for cooling air or other secondary fluid to provide a refrigerated environment for food items and beverage products, for example, within display cases in supermarkets, convenience stores, groceries, cafeterias, restaurants and other food service establishments.
Conventionally, these refrigerant vapor compression systems include a compressor, a condenser, an expansion device, and an evaporator connected in refrigerant flow communication. The aforementioned basic refrigerant system components are interconnected by refrigerant lines in a closed refrigerant circuit and arranged in accord with the vapor compression cycle employed. An expansion device, commonly an expansion valve or a fixed-bore metering device, such as an orifice or a capillary tube, is disposed in the refrigerant line at a location in the refrigerant circuit upstream, with respect to refrigerant flow of the evaporator, and downstream of the condenser. The expansion device operates to expand the liquid refrigerant passing through the refrigerant line running from the condenser to the evaporator to a lower pressure and temperature. In doing so, a portion of the liquid refrigerant traversing the expansion device expands to vapor. As a result, in conventional refrigerant compression systems of this type, the refrigerant flow entering the evaporator constitutes a two-phase mixture. The particular percentages of liquid refrigerant and vapor refrigerant depend upon the particular expansion device employed and the refrigerant in use, for example R12, R22, R134a, R404A, R410A, R407C, R717, R744 or other compressible fluid.
In some refrigerant vapor compression systems, the evaporator is a parallel tube heat exchanger. Such heat exchangers have a plurality of parallel refrigerant flow paths therethrough provided by a plurality of tubes extending in parallel relationship between an inlet header and an outlet header. The inlet header receives the refrigerant flow from the refrigerant circuit and distributes that refrigerant flow amongst the plurality of flow paths through the heat exchanger. The outlet header serves to collect the refrigerant flow as it leaves the respective flow paths and to direct the collected flow back to the refrigerant line for return to the compressor in a single pass heat exchanger or through an additional bank of heat exchange tubes in a multi-pass heat exchanger.
Historically, parallel tube heat exchangers used in such refrigerant compression systems have used round tubes, typically having a diameter of ½ inch, ⅜ inch or 7 millimeters. More recently, flat, rectangular or oval shape, multi-channel tubes are being used in heat exchangers for refrigerant vapor compression systems. Each multi-channel tube has a plurality of flow channels extending longitudinally in parallel relationship the length of the tube, each channel providing a small cross-sectional flow area refrigerant flow path. Thus, a heat exchanger with multi-channel tubes extending in parallel relationship between the inlet and outlet headers of the heat exchanger will have a relatively large number of small cross-sectional flow area refrigerant paths extending between the two headers. In contrast, a parallel tube heat exchanger with conventional round tubes will have a relatively small number of large flow area flow paths extending between the inlet and outlet headers.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,360, Hughes et al. disclosed an evaporator or evaporator/condenser for use in refrigeration or heat pump systems including a pair of spaced headers and a plurality of elongated, generally V-shape, multiple flow passage tubes of flattened cross-section extending in parallel, spaced relation between and in fluid communication within the headers. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,616, Haussmann discloses an evaporator for use in motor vehicle air conditioning systems having a plurality of a plurality of parallel, U-shape flow passages extending between an inlet side and an outlet side of a manifold. Each U-shape flow passage is formed of a pair of vertically extending flat multi-channel tubes interconnected at the lower ends by an end cap which serves to reverse the fluid flow from a downward flow through the first tube to an upward flow through the second tube.
Non-uniform distribution, also referred to as maldistibution, of two-phase refrigerant flow is a common problem in parallel tube heat exchangers which adversely impacts heat exchanger efficiency. Two-phase maldistribution problems are caused by the difference in density of the vapor phase refrigerant and the liquid phase refrigerant present in the inlet header due to the expansion of the refrigerant as it traversed the upstream expansion device. Obtaining uniform refrigerant flow distribution amongst the relatively large number of small cross-sectional flow area refrigerant paths is even more difficult than it is in conventional round tube heat exchangers and can significantly reduce heat exchanger efficiency.